boston breakers

This morning the Washington Spirit waived defender Alyssa Kleiner. Kleiner played two seasons for the Spirit and appeared in 35 games. With the amount of additions the Spirit have made this offseason, several more players will need to be waived before the season begins.

It's a ghoulish business, this, the parceling off of a roster from a folded team. But players need a place to play, and short of actually setting a reasonable deadline for ownership negotiations that would have given people proper time to find a job, the league has done its best to incentivize teams to draft players with relaxed rules around salary caps and roster limits for those drafted.

Boston Breakers forward Adriana Leon has been nominated for Canada Soccer's 2017 player of the year.

It's a very nice nod to a player who was seemingly out of the squad a couple of years ago but worked her way back in, notching three goals in six games for her country on top of six goals and six assists for her club.

Two injury-riddled teams are looking to figure some things out for the future

2017 has been a rough season for both the Washington Spirit and the Boston Breakers, who sit 9th and 10th in the NWSL standings at the moment. Injuries have hit both teams, as has a tendency to not turn good performances into actual results.

The Spirit need a win against a team that has given them trouble throughout their history

After a stretch in which they played four straight road games (and five of six total games since July 1st), the Washington Spirit return home in dire need of points. Hosting the Boston Breakers, Washington is looking at a situation in which they need to make up a nine point gap in eight games to get into the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

The Boston Breakers will play the Washington Spirit away tomorrow. These are two teams who have, frustratingly, missed some crucial pieces at times this season, but who are both capable of turning in scintillating performances. The problem is consistency.

Midge Purce's first professional goal kept Washington winless away from home

Despite creating plenty of chances in both halves, and the return of Mallory Pugh and Estefania Banini, the Washington Spirit remained winless away from home, falling 1-0 to the Boston Breakers at Jordan Field today.

The Boston Breakers have claimed 25-year-old forward Katie Stengel after she was waived by the Washington Spirit.

To maintain the 20-player roster cap, the Breakers have waived defender Kylie Strom.

Stengel had 222 minutes over five games for the Spirit and no goals or assists; with the Spirit starting to find their rhythm through the work of Francisca Ordega and Cheyna Williams, and the return of Mallory Pugh hopefully imminent, that didn't leave much room for Stengel to break in.

The Houston Dash selected Kyah Simon with their first pick of the dispersal draft.

The Houston Dash had an interesting day in the NWSL Dispersal Draft opting to take a retired player with their first pick. With the league going down to nine teams they elected to hold a dispersal draft to help place players from Boston with clubs for 2018.

It's a quick turnaround for the Boston Breakers this week as they just played a midweek game against the Houston Dash (a very disappointing 3-1 loss) and will now have to set themselves to play the Orlando Pride.

The Breakers are in a trough right now. Playing the Dash was probably their best chance to pick up points as they were without key midfielders Carli Lloyd and Morgan Brian, but their own injuries took too severe a toll and they made several critical mistakes without being able to put the ball on frame themselves.

Sarah Hagen's two goal performance led Houston to a 3-1 victory over Boston.

Sarah Hagen's breakout two-goal performance led the Houston Dash to a 3-1 victory over the Boston Breakers at Jordan Field in Boston on Wednesday night.

With Carli Lloyd out with an ankle sprain, Hagen made the most of her opportunity in the starting eleven, finding the back of the net twice, both following great attacking build-ups from the Dash attack.

The Houston Dash hosted the Boston Breakers in a mid-week match-up that was slightly delayed due to the Houston Dynamo playing (and losing) a US Open Cup game earlier in the evening. The Dash were the better team on the night but the Breakers were the team who would find the back of the net.

UPDATED 1/25/18 10:00 PM ET: Added tweets from Portland Thorns owner Merritt Paulson regarding the status of the Breakers before the decision was made to fold the team.

A new ownership deal that could have kept the Boston Breakers local but moved them down to the Union Point land development in Weymouth has fallen apart, and with no new ownership able to step in on such short notice, the team will fold.

It's been an exciting break in NWSL action with both the 2017 Women's Euro and the Tournament of Nations taking place. There have been days where up to five international matches took place from morning until night; can NWSL possibly hope to match that level of excitement?

Earlier today, The Bent Musket discussed whether Boston Breakers head coach Matt Beard would be staying with the team in 2018 as its head coach. Thanks to social media, we now know the answer a couple of hours later from former GM and current President of Soccer Ops and Development Lee Billiard.

The Portland Thorns defeated the Boston Breakers 1-0 at Jordan Field in Boston, MA, as Christine Sinclair netted her 8th goal of the season, guaranteeing the Thorns will host a semifinal for the second consecutive season.

The Thorns were unable to find much of a rhythm throughout the match, as the Breakers came out of the gate looking to disrupt the Thorns attack through physical, pressing play.

As we come to the close of the 2017 NWSL season, there's a lot to contemplate about the Boston Breakers. They have three games left and are currently on a four-game losing streak with a 3-11-7 record for 9th place overall. They've had injuries galore, including the hamstring injury that derailed Rose Lavelle's rookie season and forced the team to rearrange the rest of their season.

It was the last minute of stoppage as the Boston Breakers played the Orlando Pride at home. Orlando had already gone up two and Boston was just looking to salvage a little bit of dignity in the 93'. Adriana Leon took a big tackle in the box and the ref pointed to the spot.

It's a midseason for NWSL retirements, apparently. Boston Breakers midfielder Amanda Da Costa has announced she will retire following Boston's August 19 home game against the Orlando Pride. Da Costa will be attending grad school to pursue a masters in school psychology, and will be involved with coaching at her company, Advantage Training.

Christine Nairn pulled the strings to set Seattle up for goals, but the finishing was lacking this week.

Seattle Reign FC hosted the Boston Breakers on Saturday night, looking to make amends for their 3-0 defeat in Boston earlier this season, along with their equally disappointing 2-0 loss in North Carolina the week prior.

The night started off festive as the Seattle Reign FC celebrated head coach and general manager Laura Harvey coaching in her 100th NWSL regular season match. Unfortunately the night did not end with a celebratory spirit as the Reign FC and Boston Breakers played to a 1-1 draw.

The Rest

We're just starting to get answers about Boston and how the league and the team got to this point.

With the shuttering of the Boston Breakers, the attention of fans now turns from the what to the how and the why. How did Boston reach the point where not only was it no longer financially viable to run the team, but no buyer could be found who was willing to take on their reported debts?

Boston Breakers forward Midge Purce has been called up to the first USWNT U-23 camp of 2018, which runs from January 4 - 11 in Carson, CA. As per US Soccer's press release, the full senior team will also be in camp at the same time, no doubt allowing Jill Ellis to evaluate younger players she considers to be on the periphery of the senior WNT.

On a slightly humid night in Boston, in front of a noisy crowd, Angela Salem was everywhere. The Boston Breakers were playing the Portland Thorns and Salem went from defensive to attacking mid as Boston tried to find an equalizer on a night when they were dominating play but unable to score.

It's hard to grow a small business. Most NWSL clubs are basically that - small businesses trying to create something from the ground up. The Boston Breakers have a little more of a foundation than some thanks to their long history in women's soccer, dating back to WUSA, but that doesn't mean they aren't facing the exact same conditions: an imperfect economy, tight budgets, and a general lack of awareness around women's sports.

The Reign will be looking for redemption after getting trounced by Boston on the road.

After putting in their worst performance of the season against Boston on the road, Seattle Reign FC (5-3-5) will be looking for redemption this weekend when they host the Boston Breakers (3-6-4). The match kicks off at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, July 15 at 7 PM PT, and will stream on go90 and the NWSL website.

The Boston Breakers entire this match against the Chicago Red Stars at #9 on the table, with 12 points out of 12 games. The Red Stars are #2, with 23 points out of 12 games. In their last meeting in May, the Red Stars forced a 1-1 tie in nearly the last minute of regulation, denying the Breakers a crucial road win.